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For years eCoachManager has been delivering state of the art systems to aid coach and bus operators streamline their businesses. And over the last couple of years we have seen a big change in the manufacturers making coaches and buses and who is dominating the market.

Six coach manufacturers dominate the world market, between them they have a 40% share and there are some names among them that may surprise a great many people.

There are two Chinese makers, Zhengzhou Yutong Bus and Xiamen King Long Motor. Also two from Germany, Daimler and Volkswagen, Toyota from Japan and Marcopolo from Brazil.

A report by SCI Verkehr in Berlin stated that the European bus manufacturing market was under pressure due to a new cost-sensitive approach by the world market. They agreed that worldwide demand for buses had continued to grow but this increase had slowed down on previous years.

Demographics Change

Europe has seen the biggest decline of growth in bus production due to the positive market dynamics of both India and China. This means that in particular China are getting an increased market share at the expense of their European competitors.

In 2012 for the very first time two manufacturers from China were top of worldwide bus deliveries, knocking Daimler off its long held pole position as market leader.

Reasons for Change

It is rather harsh to claim the emphasis is now on quantity rather than quality and that cost was the only driving factor in this major swing to Asia manufacturers. We also have to look at the size of the domestic markets in both China and India.

And in 2011, the Chinese company Yutong became the largest bus manufacturer in the world. Then a year later it was joined by another Chinese company, King Long as number two worldwide both ahead of Daimler.

Daimler’s production was an amazing 32% less than the market leader and the figures shocked many in the bus industry.

The reasons for Daimlers demise are many, with Daimlers key market being Europe the competition has become particularly fierce. Daimler have also withdrawn from the North American market which affected demand greatly, especially in the South American demand for Daimler product.

But the main factor is something that is affecting all European bus manufacturers and that is the growing competition from Asia. Chinese and Indian firms can produce vehicles more cost effectively and therefore sell cheaper in the market.

World Sales

The above summary can be highlighted if we look at a table of bus production in a top ten list. Five manufacturers from China and India make up the top ten, three from China and two from India. (Yutong, King Long, Ankai, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland).

Perhaps the bus industry in Europe and elsewhere should not be too despondent, if we take a relatively pertinent comparison with the motor industry we can see similar domination by Asia.

The car industry has a Japanese leader of sales with Toyota being number one, Nissan number four, and Hyundai taking fifth spot. It is interesting to note although China had no manufacturing representative in the top ten they were the largest market. In 2013 there were 21 million new vehicles registered in China and it looks like demand is increasing year on year.

The new and up and coming coach manufacturers are based in Asia, the demand from their home markets will ensure they will stay top of the world’s bus and coach market for the foreseeable future, but who knows after that what the market will do.